Portimao was an ok race, but baring a few moments of excitement, I could have easily fallen asleep to the race. The width of the track on the straight all the way down to turn 1 is simply a bit ludicrous and with the DRS it made it almost impossible to defend from someone as you had the width of six M25s worth of space on either side so all anyone needed to do was just dummy one way and then switch back.
Bottas once again was the bridesmaid never the bride. Started off so well but as soon as he got into a period of managing tyres especially on the hards he just didnt have the pace. Getting done by Hamilton and Verstappen rattled him and I think he already knows his chances for this season are done. Fastest lap is a small consolation for a track where he has always been quick over one lap.
I think the low rake design of the Mercedes definitely helped at this track especially with the wind that was massively affecting the high rake cars like the Red Bulls and the Ferraris. Whilst all of the drivers were complaining about the track over the weekend, with its lack of grip and cold track surface temps, you could see that Red Bulls in particular, suffered badly with aero balance especially over the last couple of corners which hampered Verstappen getting close enough for a pass down the straight even with DRS.
The Mercedes engine was definitely the one to have at this track, with Mclaren all weekend, and the Williams of Russell in quali, showing some ridiculous pace down the straight.
The thing to remember with this season is for a lot of teams (excl Merc and RB at this point of the season), they are putting little to no resources (Haas...) into this season as the regulations are going to change for next year and it would be prudent to concentrate a lot of your efforts on the next phase of the regulations. Start too late and you will pretty much write off the next 2-3 years as you will be playing constant catch up.
Thanks to the token development system, Ferrari couldnt actually do to much this year (new engine and a small bit of suspension work) and knew they would struggle, but they have made a massive step up from their troubles last year. The financial cap that has come in has also meant they have had to diversify their staff and operations rather then lay them off (big no no in Italien law i think), so expect them to do a massive push into GT racing with the new hypercars, but they wont be going away from F1 anytime 😉
I currently dart around the A roads of Northamptonshire in a 2017 VW Polo Gti 6C
Bought a couple of years ago as I was missing the feeling of racing on a regular basis thanks to various injuries, and just wanted something that made my drive to work a bit more interesting.
Was torn at the time between a couple of different cars like the Golf GTi/R and a BMW 125i/330, but saving for a wedding at the time and remortgaging the house made me consider finances and thought I needed to be a bit more sensible.
It’s a great little car for me and the wife, with plenty of power and great handling and regularly makes me laugh. Definitely surprises a number of more powerful cars in the twisty bits.
Only downside is that it’s not got much space in the back and pre Covid I was spending every week at the fuel pump spaffing away 50quid a time on Mr Shells finest 😂
Posted
Portimao was an ok race, but baring a few moments of excitement, I could have easily fallen asleep to the race. The width of the track on the straight all the way down to turn 1 is simply a bit ludicrous and with the DRS it made it almost impossible to defend from someone as you had the width of six M25s worth of space on either side so all anyone needed to do was just dummy one way and then switch back.
Bottas once again was the bridesmaid never the bride. Started off so well but as soon as he got into a period of managing tyres especially on the hards he just didnt have the pace. Getting done by Hamilton and Verstappen rattled him and I think he already knows his chances for this season are done. Fastest lap is a small consolation for a track where he has always been quick over one lap.
I think the low rake design of the Mercedes definitely helped at this track especially with the wind that was massively affecting the high rake cars like the Red Bulls and the Ferraris. Whilst all of the drivers were complaining about the track over the weekend, with its lack of grip and cold track surface temps, you could see that Red Bulls in particular, suffered badly with aero balance especially over the last couple of corners which hampered Verstappen getting close enough for a pass down the straight even with DRS.
The Mercedes engine was definitely the one to have at this track, with Mclaren all weekend, and the Williams of Russell in quali, showing some ridiculous pace down the straight.
The thing to remember with this season is for a lot of teams (excl Merc and RB at this point of the season), they are putting little to no resources (Haas...) into this season as the regulations are going to change for next year and it would be prudent to concentrate a lot of your efforts on the next phase of the regulations. Start too late and you will pretty much write off the next 2-3 years as you will be playing constant catch up.
Thanks to the token development system, Ferrari couldnt actually do to much this year (new engine and a small bit of suspension work) and knew they would struggle, but they have made a massive step up from their troubles last year. The financial cap that has come in has also meant they have had to diversify their staff and operations rather then lay them off (big no no in Italien law i think), so expect them to do a massive push into GT racing with the new hypercars, but they wont be going away from F1 anytime 😉
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